The Independent Whig
Moral Foundations Theory
Henry James Sr. Stole My Idea (100 years before I had it)
He called it personality type, I call it cognitive style, but we’re talking about the same thing; the end points of a spectrum of different ways of thinking. This, I believe, might be the ingredient that’s missing from Moral Foundation Theory that would allow it to explain what it currently cannot. It is number three of … Continue reading
Jonathan Haidt’s Metaphors Sacrifice Completeness and Accuracy in Favor of Parsimony and Ideology, Part II: Taste Buds
This is Part II of a two-part essay in which I attempt to make the case that several of the metaphors Jonathan Haidt uses to help convey the lessons of his study of morality do more harm than good to his Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), to our understanding of the partisan divide, and potentially to … Continue reading
Is “Groupthink” Evidence of Another Moral Foundation?
The Evils of Groupthink and Sound Bites, by Steve Tobak on FoxBusiness.com today resonates with Haidt’s idea of “groupishness.” Interestingly (to me), our tendency toward the herd mentality of groupthink does not seem to be about morality, per se, or about the fact that “morality binds and blinds,” as Haidt’s third principle of moral psychology contends. … Continue reading
The Conservative Conundrum, and a Possible Solution
Haidt’s work presents a conundrum for conservatives. On the one hand, in one context, everything he says is right. We should understand where both sides are coming from, realize that both sides offer valuable insights, give more benefit of the doubt, stop demonizing the other side, and build a door through the wall of the … Continue reading
An Interpretation of Moral Foundations Theory: Introduction and Table of Contents
This post is an Introduction and Table of Contents (scroll down a little) for a series of posts. Each post in the series stands on its own, but together they form an alternate interpretation of Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Foundations Theory. I live in the six-foundation moral matrix. In other words, I am conservative. Haidt grew up in the three-foundation … Continue reading
Overview: Moral Foundations Theory Explains Much More Than Just The Political Divide
Social scientist Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Foundations Theory does not go far enough. Haidt suggests that moral foundations are a set of intuitions about human behavior and social interaction embedded in each of us by natural selection, and that the political divide can be traced to the different ways liberals and conservatives apply the foundations to … Continue reading
Introduction to Moral Foundations Theory
This post offers a brief overview of Moral Foundations Theory. For complete information see the Publications page Haidt’s web site, or his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt One of my favorite articles by Haidt about Moral Foundations Theory is“Planet of the Durkheimians, Where Community, … Continue reading
I Support Viewpoint Diversity
A politically diverse group of social scientists, natural scientists, humanists, and other scholars who want to improve our academic disciplines and universities. We share a concern about a growing problem: the loss or lack of “viewpoint diversity.” When nearly everyone in a field shares the same political orientation, certain ideas become orthodoxy, dissent is discouraged, and errors can go unchallenged.
Venn Diagram of Liberal and Conservative Traits and Moral Foundations and
The Independent Whig 